The rand retained its weaker bias on Tuesday, as global markets trade cautiously ahead of the US Federal Reserve open market committee meeting on Wednesday. This was despite the euro, which the rand usually tracks, extending recent gains against the dollar. The euro reached a high of $1.1712 to the dollar partially lifted by a record reading of German business sentiment, reported Dow Jones Newswires. Central bank officials in both the US and eurozone are preparing to begin tapering monetary stimulus, which has been called into question by a lack of inflationary pressure. Market expectation is that the Fed will not adjust interest rates at the meeting on Wednesday, but will rather inform the pace of the economy’s growth and the likelihood of the next interest-rate increase, according to analysts. Weakness in the rand seemed driven by position squaring in risk assets ahead of the US Fed rate decision on Wednesday‚ said TreasuryOne analyst Phillip Pearce. At 3.30pm, the rand was at R13...
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